Restaurant reviews: Radii, Park Hyatt
The central, open, food preparation area
When the Park Hyatt was built on Melbourne’s fringe, its restaurant Radii was launched to a food-mad populace as the city’s newest fine-dining establishment. Greedy Girl and gluttonous husband took a table there in its early days although we recalled being blown away by the dramatic space rather than the gastronomy.
This was, ahem, at least a dozen years ago and long before Greedy Girl started her blog and restaurant reviews. Radii has since fallen off the radar in terms of fine dining but a recent ‘coupon’ deal that landed in Greedy Girl’s inbox was too good an offer to refuse. With gluttonous husband and friends The Artist and Easily Pleased in tow, we wandered up to the eastern end of the city to experience three courses and a glass of wine each for roughly $40 a head.
The interior is essentially unchanged. Lashings of marble, highly polished timber, interesting lighting and leather seating give an opulent feel. The tables are scattered around on various levels, separated by small staircases. We were shown to a lovely table, overlooking a jazz trio (as you can see in the picture, above) and settled in. There are two open kitchen areas in the restaurant, one abutting a wood-fired oven and another marble and glass central island you can see at left.
Making our selections with the delightful, efficient and bubbly waitress, we needed to get used to the ambient noise to be able to chat. While the jazz trio was pleasant, it was pretty loud – and the staircases from the main dining room go all the way down to a basement bar, filled with after-work revellers on this Friday night.
While the boys, gluttonous husband and Easily Pleased started with beers (a Little Creatures pale ale and an Asahi respectively), we girls opted for sparkling mineral water. As part of the deal, each of us was entitled to a glass of either a Grant Burge 5th Generation shiraz from the Barossa Valley or a Sevenhill Inigo Riesling from the Clare Valley. Greedy Girl and The Artist decided they’d had enough wine of late and gave the guys two glasses each.
And so to the food. After checking there were no dietary requirements, we were treated to some lovely warm bread and an olive oil/balsamic mix and awaited the chef’s choice of amuse bouche. A slice of lightly-toasted ciabatta was topped with chicken parfait, quince jam and a hazelnut dressing. The parfait was very smooth and tasty and it paired brilliantly with the quince jam. Greedy Girl couldn’t really taste much of the dressing but it was certainly a very well balanced offering – and quite large for an amuse bouche.
Chicken parfait, quince jam, hazelnut dressing
The deal entitled us to choose from three options for starters and main courses. After a little negotiation, we ensured that we covered off all the available dishes. To begin, both Greedy Girl and The Artist had the wood-roasted pine mushrooms with carnaroli rice, lemon and olive oil. What Greedy Girl didn’t expect was a rather large dollop of crème fraiche on top which she felt overwhelmed the dish a tad. Still, the mushrooms were meaty and flavoursome (if a little dry) and the risotto underneath very oozy.
Wood roasted pine mushrooms
Easily Pleased took the gorgonzola panna cotta salad. It was certainly a vibrant-looking plate (and apologies if the pictures don’t really do the colours justice, because the dining room is quite dark) and Easily Pleased was particularly taken with the vino cotto dressing. The gorgonzola had been rendered as a custard and the resulting texture was very pleasant and tasty with the profusion of greens (beans, peas, romaine) radish and edible flowers. Easily Pleased ate half and handed the plate to The Artist, who shared half her mushroom and rice dish.
Gorgonzola panna cotta salad
Gluttonous husband took the beef tartare. Described as ‘hand cut’, the beef was very soft and the dish was presented well, in a round pattie, with an egg yolk daintily placed in its centre. It was served with black truffle potato chips, of which we all partook. They were quite delish. The tartare was a nice texture but gluttonous husband commented it was missing any real spice. When we’ve ordered tartare in France, for example, the patron is usually asked what level of spice they prefer. This could have definitely used some oomph.
Beef tartare, black truffle chips
And so to main courses. Easily Pleased took the Milawa chicken with truffled pomme purée and pine mushrooms (must be the season). This was an attractive plate of food and the chicken was very moist. Easily Pleased commented there wasn’t a huge truffle hit from the mash. We all tried the chicken and agreed the texture and flavour was good.
Milawa chicken
Greedy Girl and The Artist took the Black Angus rump steak with chicory, horseradish and parsley purée. While The Artist took her meat done medium-to-well, Greedy Girl asked for medium-to-rare. This is a cut of meat that perhaps is better for less cooking and Greedy Girl now wishes she’d asked for rare. The flavour was quite nice and the meat cut easily but it was still perhaps a bit over. The accompaniments were very strong-flavoured, particularly the parsley.
Black Angus rump
Gluttonous husband generously took the final option, a hand-rolled potato gnocchi – a very unusual choice for him given he rarely indulges in pasta when we dine out. It was served with a stinging nettle, pink garlic and crème fraiche sauce which gluttonous husband declared to be the flavour of the evening. He even used some remaining bread to mop it up.
Gnocchi with stinging nettles sauce
Greedy Girl would have been happy to draw a line there but the boys were craving a sweet treat to end the night. While Easily Pleased had a scoop of chocolate ice-cream, gluttonous husband ordered the chocolate fondant bar. The presentation of the dish was very pretty, but Greedy Girl could have done without the edible flowers or the cherries inside, as well as the scoop of sorbet on the side. Still, it was a nice note to finish proceedings.
Chocolate fondant bar
The serving sizes were all very generous and, all told, it was a great deal – probably one of the best coupon offers we’ve taken up. A note about the experience: there was never any sense that because we were dining ‘on the cheap’ as it were, that anyone at the Park Hyatt treated us any differently. The welcome and service was warm and friendly and we weren’t consigned to a table somewhere out of the way. It was certainly handled very impressively.
Radii at the Park Hyatt
1 Parliament Square, Melbourne
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